Mar 24, 2013 / Community Pool

Community Pool: Design and Layout

Community Pool

The Community Pool is for those of you looking for input, whether on post ideas, writing, blog design and layout, or anything else. If you have a post, page, or idea you want to bounce off someone, leave a comment. Your fellow bloggers can then click through and offer input either on your site, or in the comments here (feel free to indicate which you’d prefer).

This week, bring questions about your theme, layout, or design. It’s all up for grabs — widget placement, custom backgrounds, font choices, you name it.

Read on for the ground rules and to leave a comment . . .

  • You’ll get the best feedback if you can be as specific as possible about what you’d like people to respond to or where you’re struggling.
  • Please keep all comments civil and constructive. We’re here to help and support one another, not to beat anyone down.
  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
  • To keep from losing your place in the comment thread, right-click on a link to open it in a new tab or window.
  • No running on the deck.

Photo by t_a_i_s.

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  1. Hello!
    I’m a new blogger and I’m looking for feedback and advice on my blog. fingerprintwriting.wordpress.com
    (1) When I add media in my post, I don’t know how to edit or delete it. I’ve trashed the entire post and started over whenever I needed to edit the photo.

    (2) In my “photographs” page, I was able to add text along with the caption to the first photo (the sunflower), but with the second photo (mango blossoms), I was only able to place a caption. The third photo (explore) was just added but did not appear on top. I placed some text in the description box, yet that did not show up. Do I always have to use “edit” when adding a new photo to this page? Is there another way?

    As you can see, my tech skills are low level and I truly value your advice.

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  4. Hi, everyone I am a new blogger and I have written on a number of topics but never have I written about my self and i just did. Can you check it out and let me know what you think. My blog is sheilacioustreehouse.wordpress.com

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    1. if you want to read something enirely different from what you are use to then head to sheilacioustreehouse.wordpress.com leave a comment so I know what you think. thanks

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  6. Hi all, now that I found out about the beautiful things you can do with the (home)page template, I wonder which type of landing page would work best:

    1) A loose arrangement of pictures as it is currently being displayed or

    2) a single row of pictures (like you’ll find in any of the galleries, e.g. “The Berlin Train”) or

    3) just one / two / three ‘featured’ images which could link to the respective pot or gallery

    I thought it might be interesting to learn about your preferences. It would be fabulous if you could take a look and let me know. Thanks in advance!

    Tobias
    http://empireoflights.com/

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  7. Hey everyone! I just started a new blog foxywholefoodie.wordpress.com and would love some feedback if you have the time. All widgets/format are pretty basic so far as I was trying to focus on quality content but I’m hoping it’s an easy to use and understand site!

    Thanks 🙂

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  8. Bloggers, hello from London. I’d be super grateful for your opinion on something – I recently changed the layout of my website and have seen a *massive* drop in views since.

    I used to blog about what I wear to work and the gridded theme I had was particularly useful You can view a screenshot of it here:

    https://www.tumblr.com/londonfatcat/46419802005/what-my-blog-used-to-look-like

    I found it simple and charming. The key benefit was that you’d get a view of my wardrobe at a single glance – this was the main draw to the site, as I’m discovering now. I opted for a change just because I found it very limiting after a short while; I’m evolving my blog to include other fashion-related interests.

    Now I’ve got a new ‘streaming’ layout – it gives me more space but I’ve instantly lost the key ‘wardrobe-at-a-glance’ feature. I’ve tried to solve it by creating a Tumblr link in my menu to show all the photos (which I’m still updating), but I’ve had very few clicks on this since. You can view my new theme here:

    http://www.londonfatcat.com

    It’s been about 2-3 weeks since I’ve put this up. Do you think it’s working better and I should just wait to see if things pick up? Or do you think it’s not working altogether and I should go back to my old, simple theme? A possibility is to add a new menu to the old theme and post all my other fashion-related interests there (though I’m guessing no-one will click through to it at this rate!).

    I hope this is making sense! Thanks a mil,

    Fatcat

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    1. Hi, in the new theme, depending on your monitor size, there is a lot of whit space on the right. The old theme utilised the entire screen and I think it works better.

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  9. Hi. Could someone please do me a huge favour and see if my site allows you to leave a comment on the monthly competitions page? This is a new thing I am trying to do and, although I am getting some ‘likes’ for the general concept, I have not yet had any votes through and am wondering if its because I don’t have that functionality. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. The website is http://www.elizabethfrattaroli.wordpress.com

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  11. Hi, question from a newbie. My photo blog is Black Piano. I tried the short cut for circle tiles, it is giving me square tiles (no big deal, I can live with that) , but then it shows all the photos again in a vertical strip. I checked my settings and this is not a default. Does anyone know how I can get it not to show the photos in duplicate, I just want the tiled gallery. thruthewonkylens.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/photo-challenge-a-day-in-the-life/
    Thanks so much for any guidance.

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  12. I am a new blogger and was wondering if ya’ll could take a look and let me know what you think. Also how often is a good post rate. One last question – How important is an “about” page. Its one of the hardest things for me so I am trying to gauge real impact of that.

    Home

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  13. Hello to everyone here. I meant to get here right away after I received the email saying this would be a good place to get questions answered … but I just now managed to set aside time for it. I hope this page is still getting traffic and that some of you will want to help out.

    I have a couple of specific questions:

    1. I’m using the Koi Theme on a paid subscription. Is it possible for me to add custom backgrounds and a plain-colored (in a light shade) “box” for all the content? If so, where can I find instructions for doing that?

    2. In several different posts I’ve tried to post links to other blogs or to outside pages and they never end up being live links. What’s the secret to that?

    And in general, any feedback on my blog will be helpful and appreciated. I was on another host for about 18 months and then switched to WordPress in January of this year in order to take advantage of all the enhanced features and far greater exposure.

    Thanks so much for whatever help you can provide!

    Judy
    http://playingfortimeblog.com

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